Pocket PC's 44% of Australia's market?

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://itnews.com.au/story.cfm?ID=10181">http://itnews.com.au/story.cfm?ID=10181</a><br /><br />"Inform tracks sales of mass market retail PDAs, which make up for about 45 percent of the total market. In this sector Palm has been resurgent, nabbing 44 percent of sales in May against 27 percent for Compaq, 9.3 percent for Toshiba, 7.8 percent of the discontinued Jornada unit from HP and 6.2 percent for Handspring."<br /><br />But the next paragraph reads "Last week’s market shares read: Palm 54 percent, Compaq 17 percent, Toshiba 13 percent, HP 10 percent and Handspring 3 percent" which puts Pocket PC's at 40%. Weekly numbers? How reliable can that be. I think the first set is for a month, which, again, cannot be to indicative of the overall market, can it?<br /><br />Either way, two things that are interesting here. 1. Even though few Pocket PC's are below $400, they are still taking a significant bite out of the market. 2. No Sony numbers? Does Sony not sell PDA's in Australia?<br /><br />Source: Mark Hansen

[Timothy Rapson]

Because they all speak English anyway, and so many PDA manufacturers don't sell there direct because the market is too small to support a support staff, I expect more Aussies buy from overseas than people of most other countries do.

So, say last week Compaq sold 1 Ipaq and there were 6 PDAs sold in the whole country last week, they get 16% as shown!

This whole numbers game is so convoluted anyway. By the time you compare country to country, consumer vs. corporate, organizer vs. PDA or wonder how Internet capable Cell phones count, it is hopeless to speak in anything but generalities.

[Ed Hansberry]

So, say last week Compaq sold 1 Ipaq and there were 6 PDAs sold in the whole country last week, they get 16% as shown!
Well, the user base is definitely smaller, but given that 10,000 PDA's were sold there in May, I would say your 6/wk is a bit understated. :wink:

[/dev/niall]

Sony is probably counted as Palm. As are Visors, and all other Palm-based devices. Pretty cool for Palm, eh?

[Foo Fighter]

The methods that analysts and market tracking firms use to observe PDA marketshare is really flawed. Some, like NPD, only track retail sales..which is only a sliver of the overall market. Hell, I haven't purchased a PDA in retail in over two years. So that means I'm not even included in the study. And don't ask me what significance "revenue share" could possibly have on the handheld pie chart. So Compaq has more revenue share than Palm? Yeah, well iPaq's are a hell of lot more expensive than Palm's products...but does that mean that the iPaq is out-selling PalmOS devices? No.

In my opinion, the only conclusive (relatively) way to determine share is by looking at overall unit shipments. It's still not 100% accurate, but it's the best method we have for now. :?

[farnold]

Hm, dunno the exact numbers... but there are of course some significant differences in down under... for one thing, COMPAQ as an organisation was always larger than HP in Australia...
Yes, SONY does sales in Australia... and not too bad either...
Buying overseas? Yes, we could do that, but you get all the devices from local organisations as well. And I would rather buy locally for service reasons. Don't forget the shipment costs of around 50 bucks, if you get one from the States or from UK.

And if you want to learn more about, what's different... give it a go at http://www.ibelieve.com.au/video/videoframe1.html ... right, has no direct relation to PocketPCs or PDAs, but is still pretty funny...

[Mr. PPC]

The Sony line of PDA hasn't been on sale here for very long, that may be why they don't list it.

It isn't due to small numbers of people that PDA units don't sell in really high numbers here. It is because of cost...

Toshiba e310 = $899.00 AUS
Toshiba e570 = $1248.00 AUS

Ipaq 3970 = $1499.00 AUS
Ipaq 3870 = $1399.00 AUS
Ipaq 3850 = $1199.00 AUS
Ipaq 3630 = $999.00 AUS

HP 568 = $1099.00 AUS

NEC Moblepro 300E = $999.00 AUS
NEC Mobilepro P300 = $1099.00 AUS

Cassiopeia Palmtop E200 = $1399.00 AUS

Sony Clié T615 Handheld 16MB RAM 320x320 TFT, Memory Stick = $949.00 AUS
Sony Clié NR70VG Handheld 16MB RAM, Bulit-in Camera = $1349.00 AUS

These prices were taken from an online (HT) retailer here in Sydney.

[Ed Hansberry]

Ipaq 3870 = $1399.00 AUS
Yikes! That would be just over $800 US for what we pay max of $649.

[madbart]

Unless the information is supplied directly from the manufacturer the numbers will always be wrong, and in any case there is nothing to stop companies from inflating figures as they have done in the past.

Inform is private firm that requests information from only a portion of the market.

As for market prices in AUST the 3970 was retailing for $1379.00 (758USD)and has dropped today to $1250.00 (680USD) with the release here today of the 3970.

[Mr. PPC]

Unfortunetly, we don't get paid in US dollars.

So to make it more painfull, imagine those prices were US.

[Mr. PPC]

...As for market prices in AUST the 3970 was retailing for $1379.00 (758USD)and has dropped today to $1250.00 (680USD) with the release here today of the 3970.

Did you mean to say, "3870 was retailing..."?

[madbart]

MR PPC i stand corrected!

[Mr. PPC]

Madbart,

:lol:

My post with prices required two trys as I was making too many typos. Brain just wasn't working for some reason, think I left it at home when I went to work.

Dave